


Groundbreaking

by fish_wifey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Karasuno is a minor school for heroes, Pre-hero, Quirks, Sawamura Daichi origin, Superpowers, bnha au, powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-13 23:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14758499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: A quirk so powerful it could destroy a country. The exact reason Sawamura is not allowed to use it, nor train it. While he has one of the most powerful quirks imaginable, becoming a hero with it might just be out of the question.But those who train wild crows in the east do not care for the rules. And Sawamura went to Karasuno, after all.





	Groundbreaking

**Author's Note:**

> Gosh I know the title is soooo original but I seriously didn't come up with anything better after the first draft Dx
> 
> Anyway I always connect superpowers/magical aus with Sawamura to have him anything earth-related and a rumbling strength which can be silent and deadly. This fic belongs in the universe of my miyakage (atsukage) series 'Threatening Skies'. I'm hesitant about adding it to the series because I wanna keep it for atsukage/osahina/linear story telling Dx  
> None of it has to be read for this one shot tho~ 
> 
> For those who want to read the series or are in the middle of it: there's no spoilers in this except what Daichi's quirk is and how strong he is.
> 
> Please enjoy .v.

Daichi's quirk didn't show itself until he went looking for it.

On a warm June day, Daichi chooses to lay in the backyard of his grandmother's home. His father is inside helping with the house, while Daichi's mother is off working. Being 8 years old and of not much use with the heavy lifting his father was doing, Daichi thought that the outdoors would be a perfect place to test out if he had powers, and what they could be. His mother's quirk were that she could grow flowers by planting them, and keeping her hand in the soil. Daichi had tried doing that in this garden before, with no luck. 

Today he wants to see if maybe his father's amazing quirk was given to him through DNA. Daichi's father was a man of mountains and soil, who could move boulders with ease. A strong role model, Daichi hopes that something of him is inside of Daichi, waiting to be awakened. 

Lying on his back, Daichi closes his eyes. His fingers splay over the warm soil, fingers being tickled by the grass. A breeze comes and goes, while around him everything turns silent. 

Daichi feels how part of himself becomes one with the earth. While he tries to reach out to a quirk resting within, his soul lowers itself through layers and layers of thick earth, stones, and a hotter core. Furrowing his brows, Daichi cannot find his way back. Its as if he's sinking and sinking, while he still reaches for a power to big for his own body.

When he finds it, it's like touching hands. As if an old friend rises to meet him. Then the hand becomes a strange concept of roots, curling around Daichi's hands and arms. It reaches back, breaching through Daichi's body.

And the earth quivers. 

Eyes open, Daichi sees the bluest sky, but the noise all around him rises to a 100. His father runs out of the house looking for him, and Daichi is quick to stand up. While the earthquake continues, he finds his feet unable to fall. He stands stable within the chaos, until his father's arms close around him.

"Daichi, Daichi are you okay?" Daichi's father lifts him up, as he calls back to the house. Daichi watches his grandparent's home shake under the pressure, something he doesn't want to see happen. There had been no earthquake warnings, and none seem to come. 

The shaking stops all at once. His grandparents walk down the porch, unhurt. Daichi's father speaks to him, but Daichi's mind is somewhere entirely else. They both see the cracks; where Daichi had been lying, the earth broke, sinking a little in his shape. Being turned towards his father, Daichi doesn't think he can look him at the eye, but he does so all the same. 

"Daichi, did you just do that?"

Opening his mouth, words fail him. Daichi doesn't know, and he feels like crying. His father doesn't seem angry, and it’s a personality trait of him to keep calm at all times. He still holds onto Daichi, soothing him. 

"It's alright, no one is hurt. The quake didn't seem to reach far. Daichi, it's okay, nothing bad is going to happen." Daichi's father hugs him close again, soothing him as Daichi starts to cry. The shock rumbles through him, like the earth had rumbled beneath him. 

 

*

 

What followed was a nightmare.

While the earthquake had been incredibly local, and no harm had come to anyone in the vicinity, the Sawamura family had to travel to Tokyo to let Daichi's quirk be inspected.

It turned out soon that his quirk was in the simplest term the ability to move the ground and terra-transform what he touched beneath him. Sand didn't care, but anything made of harder packed soil and rock bowed to him. At a mountain side, Daichi had to use his full power for them to see the extent of the quake, the depth of how much stone he could break.

And Daichi had created a cliff-side before he was even 9 years old. 

In the next years, Daichi wasn't allowed to use his quirk or even test out his powers on his own. When he aged 10 years old, the Hero association determined that his quirk was too powerful. The government had sanctioned that he wasn't allowed to use it, given that he could split the country in half if he wasn't careful. The finetuning of the quirk was deemed improbable, and therefore impossible.

Daichi wasn't allowed to use his quirk, ever, not even in its smallest forms. 

It was a heavy load to carry for someone who wanted to be a hero. When Daichi was 14, he basically gave up on his dream. None of the adults seemed to want to give it a try and help him focus better, to learn his quirk in a way that would do all good and no harm. But even other countries were against it, and so Daichi knew he had no place in a school of heroes. 

 

*

 

"Okay so, Asahi won't go to U.A., and my parents don't want me to move that far either. Miyagi has one other hero school which is alright, but they still think it’s too far," Koushi reads through the flyers for heroes in the area, but the advertisements are rather disheartening. Not that Daichi cares about it anyway. He's busy finishing a translations from Japanese to English during lunch time. His grade has suffered because he didn't take a lot of time to understand the other language. His father had prompted him to at least spend an hour or two daily on it, which was why Daichi sits between his friends without adding to the conversation.

"My mother kind of wants me to go to Karasuno. Their hero studies is but a branch, and you can always opt out or in the courses." Asahi rubs the back of his head, standing sheepish next to the table Koushi has taken for himself while its original occupant was out for lunch. 

"Karasuno huh... It's very close to my place too. It's always been a good option, I think. They produced one awesome hero once, right?"

"Yep, one of the few who made it," Asahi leans over to find an advertisement for the school, but there's none. After all, he decides to take an unoccupied chair and sit next to them. "They don't have a lot of funds for the hero course though... Guess that's why it’s not that well-known."

"Hmmm, I think we should all try it! Enrolling into Karasuno is not hard, and they take most people anyway. I've heard they even take drop outs and misfits! And then we can try out the hero course." Koushi beams as he says it, looking at Daichi who just finished translating a longer sentence. For a while, Daichi doesn't feel like talking, but the prolonged silence is rather stagnant. 

"I think about going to Karasuno as well, but I'm not taking the hero course," he says with the finality that has been in his voice for the past years. The mere word 'hero' leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. 

"Huh, why not? And hey, what is your quirk anyway... you're always so vague about it," Koushi asks, leaning his arms over Daichi's chest to stare at him. Despite Daichi's better upbringing (all due to his father), he cannot meet his friends eyes. 

"It doesn't matter, anyway." Daichi sighs, looking through his dictionary for a word. Koushi takes it out of his hand, then leans back out of reach. 

"Uh-uh, you always say that. You won't even take bets or have others bother you into showing. I want to know! If we're all going to Karasuno, you could at least be honest with us." Koushi had been Daichi's friend for the better half of their last year. Daichi had kept more to himself in the first two years, not interacting with lots of people. Unlike Koushi, who had friends throughout all layers of their school, Daichi and Asahi were rather shunned by their classmates. But Koushi didn't care. If he wanted to be your friend, he was your friend. 

Daichi looks through the window to where a couple of people are playing football. Kicking the ball back and forth, Daichi's eyes is more trained on the ground they run on. It's a yellow, sandy hue. Daichi knows quite well how it feels below his bare feet, as he's usually walks places he visits for the first time without shoes. Of course no one ever saw it happen; but Daichi liked to know the earth he walks on, through and through. 

"You know I won't give up asking about it this time, Daichi, so you better--"

"Come to my house after school. I'll explain." He closes his notes, then crosses his arms as he finally looks at Koushi. "And not a word before."

 

*

 

Daichi brings in the tea his father made. It's a soothing jasmine tea, which always lifts Daichi's spirits. His friends have been awing over his big room. The house was traditional Japanese style, made of wood and tatami flooring. One side of Daichi's room opens up to the backyard, and he has it open now. Koushi crouches back to the table when Daichi puts down the tray full with tea and cups.

"So, what's your quirk and secrecy all about?"

Pouring the tea and letting Asahi hand out the cookies, Daichi takes his mug. It's a replica of bone china; Daichi and his father searched for the metals themselves. They weren't exactly perfect, but Daichi likes their homemade dishes all the same. 

"My quirk is... a devastating force of nature. It's been classified as too dangerous for use and I've had no teacher who could help me control it. I can... connect myself to the earth as I walk on it, move it, transform it. But what makes it lethal is that I can cause earthquakes if I reach too far or go into a trance connecting myself." Daichi drinks his still too hot tea, looking down on the mug and his hands. Everything around the edges of his vision is swimming. 

"I was 8 when it manifested, and I caused a small earthquake at the place my grandparents live. No one was hurt, nothing much broke. But ever since... I've had multiple tests and scans taken, and was asked to perform my quirk being around so many scientist and quirk-users. You may have heard of the Sawamura-cliff in Tokyo... I did that. They wanted me to go to my fullest extent, and I split the earth into a cliff that hadn't been there before. I cannot become a hero with it. My mother grows plants, my dad can lift whatever he wants. And all I do is break things."

When Daichi looks up, he expects the same faces he's seen ever since he knew what his quirk truly was. Koushi's face is made of a calm that reminds him of his father, and Asahi gives his tea a contemplating look.

"I always knew you were strong, Daichi. That sounds... actually so fitting and amazing," Asahi's smile is soft and small, and it disappears quickly when he tries to drink his embarrassment away. Daichi can't actually believe the words that just left Asahi's mouth, the honesty behind them. Waiting for Koushi to backtrack their friendship and go along the path of heroes without him, Daichi glances at his other friend. All he sees is a wide smile. 

 

"Asahi's right. There has always been something earthen about you. And you like walking bare-feet! You always gave the earth such a longing look too. It all makes sense now." Koushi grins, his smile warming Daichi more than he'd ever admit. Confusion spreads in his chest from this... unexpected acceptance. 

"Wait... you're not afraid of me?" Daichi asks in a small voice. They say it fits him, that its cool. While all he is able to do is destroy.

"What? Of course not!" Koushi laughs, stuffing his face with a cookie.

"You're a good person, Daichi. I cannot see you as someone who would be dangerous, or as a destroyer of this world," Asahi says, scratching at the beginnings of his beard growing at his chin. "You're always so kind and helpful, and very careful with how you move or what you say."

"That's it, we're going to Karasuno," Koushi says, like its final. "Hero course or not, I think you need us around, Daichi. You're way too mopey right now!"

Daichi snorts at that, drinking his tea. Koushi is right; being down like this doesn't suit him. And he wanted to go to Karasuno anyway.

 

*

 

"Why is someone like you still in the General Areas department, Sawamura?" Ukai Ikkei's voice has a low edge tone, like a hidden knife scraping granite. When that voice was solely directed at an individual, that individual would soon list all the things he should apologize for. Daichi stands his ground, like he always has. His toes wriggle against the soft earth below him, grass at his heels. He had just gone outside from a volleyball match he, Asahi and Koushi had joined in with their third year senpai.

Being a second year and halfway through his the second term, Daichi feels like he found his place. But the old Ukai has other plans.

"Be ready to leave at 7 p.m. I'll have my grandson pick you up. And tell that Azumane kid to practice more!" Ukai turns, groaning about the youth. Daichi stares after him. 

It was no secret that Ukai took a liking to certain students in the hero courses. He's been training Tanaka and Nishinoya ever since they came to Karasuno. He had Narita operate on him once, removing a tiny anomaly from his arm. His methods were hard, or so Asahi claims. Daichi blinks towards the spot the man was seen last, long after he's gone. Unsure what Ukai could possibly want from him, Daichi sighs.

He's given up being a hero. But now a known hero trainer requested him at his house.

 

At Ukai's house, Daichi watches as small children take down the volleyball net. Poles left to their own devices, Ukai points to one side of the court. As Daichi steps on it, he feels a steady hum go up and around him. Ukai grins. 

"The poles serve as quirk softening. To make sure none of the kids use their quirk too much when they play. They go down far below, and are united with the lines drawn. You can go all out if you want; it won’t come to a catastrophe." Ukai nods, his arms crossed. Daichi is sure the old man can't be for real. To _want_ him to use his quirk at any scale. Like a child, Daichi tells him about the government sanction, how he's strictly forbidden—

"Pah, nonsense. What do they know? That quirk is a part of you. Not knowing it, being afraid of it... it goes against the psyche of the human body. Let them all be damned, Sawamura; if you don't know your power, you won't ever be able to help a person, not even yourself. Now, show me a little. I've seen the Sawamura-cliff, you know? Quite astonishing for a 9 year old."

Daichi doesn't like it. He doesn't like this at all. He's watching Ukai Ikkei through a sea of faces. Ukai Keishin, his grandson, stands in the shadow of a hedge. Bleached blond hair pushed back by a black band, the younger Ukai has a sharp face. He has his arms crossed over his chest. Daichi doesn’t know what kind of power Ukai has, nor is he allowed to think of it further.

“Are you already doing something? Don’t be shy. I said go all out!”

Eyes downcast, Daichi breathes in, out, finding not his own rhythm, but that of the planet. To feel the exact border where his feet end and nature starts. 

Crossing it. Blurring it. Making it one and the same. When Daichi breathes, a rumble answers. In and out, he makes himself rise and fall, shoulders, dirt, and rock. Like a heartbeat, he ripples his power in circles around him, making sure the piles of dirt move to Ukai. It’s not as if he can manipulate every aspect of what’s below. The harder layer is his to command however, and whatever else transpires around it, above it, moves along the way.

Rolling his shoulders backwards, Daichi concentrates on what’s between his feet. Visualizing a chasm, he makes it, widening his stance without ever moving a muscle below his hips. He widens it, searching for that barrier. The fissure finds a blockade, and no matter how hard Daichi pushes, it won’t stretch beyond the lines. As promised. 

“Good. Now don’t be scared and push that separate the court complete. Make the rift come to my feet, too,” Ukai says, his voice all calm. Breathing harder, Daichi’s shoulder inch forward. Yet when he sends the rift one way, the one below and behind him closes up. Fear of destructions hinders his movements.After minutes of trying, he cannot break the court in half. Opening his eyes, Daichi watches the earth come together as one. 

It’s not seamless; there’s bumps and uneven plates crossing all the way. Ukai walks over, shifting his weight accordingly. 

“Nicely done. Take a 5 minute break. I’m getting sports water, and when I return, the court has to be perfectly even. Don’t think you can cheat on the surface; if it’s not the same as before, _exactly the same_ , I will know.” 

 

*

 

The reach is there, the veins are there. Daichi can visualise his arms being surrounded in the roots, but the pull and break isn't there as usual. Kneeling down blind, Daichi's hands touch the ground, as if he can physically break open the earth with his hands. He can feel the presence of feet, see their locations in his mind. Like an echo scanner seeing soundwaves, Daichi's blackened mind notices the presence of his friends, where they stand. How they're not moving. 

How they're not afraid of him.

“ _Rip_.” Daichi doesn’t even know he said it out loud. A rumble courses, and when Daichi opens his eyes, he can see the split earth. It runs between his feet, all the way to where Ukai stands. His stance is wider now, but not too much. Everyone around him is in awe, watching the place once whole. Sighing, Daichi feels himself unable to stand. It’s easier now to break it apart from back-line to back-line. 

"Good, very good. You’ve become a lot faster in doing that. Now, make it whole again."

Daichi stares up, sweat running down his neck. It’s true that he’s gotten better and faster at doing controlled chasms. But returning the court to how it was before desists to be incredible hard. On that first day, Daichi has spend half an hour trying to revert it to the original state. At one point, he’s just lay down, head to heels, arms spread. Making his soul sink down, he somehow moved it all back how it was before. 

Two weeks later, when he tries to push the broken ground break together, Daichi sees a word in his head. He pushes it through his veins, through his hands, and at last through his feet connecting to what lies below. 

" _One_ ," he speaks in a low voice, feeling the earth rumbling together. He watches this time, how the crack disappears, the earth smoothing over what he unmade. All the way down, to the barrier below. Daichi checks it twice to make sure that it’s all well, before he looks to the onlookers. It appears just like before. The bleached grandson nods to his greying grandfather.

“Wooow, that’s awesome, Daichi!” Koushi claps, and Asahi joins in after a timid start. The little kids sitting on the porch clap louder than the two high school boys. After it dies down, Daichi looks to the older Ukai, perplexed.

“Well done. Now, let’s see what else we can do today. You two! Come here, quick,” Ukai yells to Daichi’s friends. Dismay spreads through his stomach as he watches Koushi step over the line, followed closely by Asahi.

“Let’s see how you fare with more people in danger, eh?”

Cold sweat runs down his neck as he watches his friends entering the place of peril. The words ’are you kidding?’ enter his throat. Daichi swallows them down before the rude question would be uttered from his dry lips. Ukai vaguely explains what the next exercise should be, but Daichi doesn’t hear it. A low rumble comes from under his feet, and before he can warn anyone, he falls.

 

*

 

“And you’re sure about it? Milk mixed with yogurt and salt… I don’t know, Suga,” Asahi says. Daichi can feel Koushi’s hand gesture; like a car’s windshield wiper, he rids himself of Asahi’s concerns. 

“Trust me, my mom always does this.”

Next, Daichi’s head is raised by four small hands, and Koushi brings a concoction of unknown taste or mixology to his lips. Both the milk and yogurt must have come from the fridge, as the mixture is fresh and cold. Daichi drinks it keeping his eyes closed, not accustomed to it. When he feels where he lies and remembers what happened, he opens his eyes.

Ukai looms above him. “Sorry kid. Guess that little exertion of power was too much. Did you ever faint before?” 

Daichi shakes his head. When he created the cliff in Tokyo, now bearing his name… He saw white for a moment. But he didn’t fall. Earth keeps him steady. Yet here he was on the court. Maybe the barrier softening his quirk had something to do with it. However, Daichi didn’t collapse right after using his quirk. It was the fear of hurting his friends which did him in, and he knows it all too well. 

“I am afraid,” he says, reaching the conclusion and needing to say it loud and clear. There was nothing wrong with being afraid. 

“Fall 7 times, stand up 8. Think you can do that, Sawamura?” Ukai says, his arms at leisure at his sides. Daichi watches him, the non-judgmental face, the many wrinkels. The absence of disappointment and fury. Nodding, Daichi doesn’t let Asahi and Koushi help. At least, not to the sitting position. Once he has to stand, he gladly puts his hands on their shoulders for support. 

Koushi offers him the glass of milk and yogurt. Daichi, feeling its effect not being negative, takes it without further question. Once he empties the glass, Koushi says he’ll get more, and makes Asahi leave, too. Looking around, Daichi sees the little kids who must have held his head up. They leave on account of a single head-gesture of Ukai. Behind the old man stands the grandson, arms tightly locked. 

“What do you think?” Ukai asks him, and the bleached punk shrugs his shoulders. 

“They could train him better at U.A., but given he’s not allowed to… I think the mountains are his only refuge.”

Ukai laughs, loud and with heart. “Back to his roots, huh? I guess so. But I cannot take him there,” Ukai punches his shoulder with a fist. “Doctor’s orders aren’t exactly the law, but I’d be foolish to bring you up there all alone. We can train here a bit more, but soon… Soon you will face your fears of falling, on the highest possible peaks.” 

The omnious words hang around the court, not a single breeze there to wish them away. Daichi hears a couple of crows caw behind him.

 

*

 

"The mountain hears you," Ukai Keishin says, putting his cigarette out at a trashcan near the fence outlining the national reserve. Heavy backpacks on their shoulders and backs, a long way behind them, Ukai made a stop to let Daichi admire the view. The higher the mountain went, the lighter grey it became. Viewing such a masterpiece of nature has taken a heavy intake of air through his nose. Walking barefoot as to both the old and the young Ukai instructions', he followed the breath through his stomach, pushing it mentally all the way down to his toes. There wasn't a rumble heard. No single leave rustles for absence of wind, and the roots of the trees weren't disturbed. Out here, seismic measurements were far off.

Daichi gives his greetings to the mountain, humble and polite. It sings back at him. How Ukai could know, Daichi couldn't fathom. A couple of his friends and his kouhai thought Ukai's quirk was more medical, given the name 'Heartlink'. Ukai hadn't been a member of the hero faculty for a long time, so what people knew and didn't know bases itself on youthful speculation. Daichi now looks to Ukai; they didn't differ much in height.

Ukai laughs under the scrutiny. "My grandfather was able to communicate with crows, nurture them, know their family ties. My mother inherited the ability to tell birds a thing and have them reply it back to her, perfectly understanding the chirps. I... I cannot talk to animals. But nature... all of nature has an aura. A kind of feeling that doesn't need sound or vision."

Tapping his chest, Ukai points to his heart. "I feel what it wants, what it needs. It's not something easily put into words. But concerning the earth we walk on, you surely understand what I mean." 

Averting his gaze to the mountain, Daichi refrains from nodding. He definitely feels it in heart, in his soul, in his bones. 

"Come, Sawamura. This is a friendly forest. The longer we stay, the more rodents and bugs we will attract," Ukai laughs, continuing his way.

 

*

 

After half a months of training, Ukai Ikkei gave the reigns of it to Ukai Keishin. Daichi hadn’t known what to expect. Leaving the safe zone of the older Ukai’s backyard wasn’t exactly on his mind, and he didn’t like the risk.

 _’Birds needs a push out of the nest to truly fly. Your natural habitat is all below you, everywhere you go. The mountains are a safe bet to keep the destructive nature of it contained locally,’_ the old Ukai had said yesterday night after the regular training had ended. He hadn’t looked at Daichi; instead he had pointed at a prepared backpack. Ukai Keishin would go with him, assigned to these outside adventures. 

For Daichi, moving the earth is nothing like flying. If only he could feel a breeze of freedom. To touch the limits of his being and truly explore its horizon. But such notions were forbidden.

Instead he has to concentrate; on his breathing, on his mind, on the visuals in his head. To transmit what he wants when he reforms what he feels humming back from the earth. At least here, he hadn’t to deal with distractions. His friends weren’t allowed to come, there were no children (who had sworn not to tell anyone about Daichi’s quirk or indeed, his training). Nature’s own sounds a background noise, Daichi creates his very own symphony, squiggling his toes as if he’s drumming it together.

The ground shifts. The way Daichi envisions the movement, it goes whatever direction he wants it to. Splitting the earth, merging it, creating rock installations that don't look like anything. Lacking artistic ability, the best Daichi can come up with a rock balls. Or they could be balls, if they weren't so damn bumpy. Behind him Ukai huffs a laugh without malice or mockery.

"Sentiment. They will roll off the mountain all the same," Ukai gives them all a push. Watching as they roll in curves and hitches, Daichi sees that he failed on all sides to give any of them the kind of grooves of volleyballs. Making minor adjustments to the collected rock could have been a good exercise; if he would have managed to create them. But rolling the do, further and further.

“Now stop them,” Ukai says, and Daichi panics. Should he call them back? Could he even roll them upwards once more… or would a wall be more effective in this situation. Levelling the hill seems a bit too much. The bumpy balls gain momentum, and as Daichi’s panic rises through his throat, unable to be pushed down as he watches the balls go, his reach on them evaporates. When he tries to connect to the rocks, they do not submit to his will. His grasp diminishes. 

_Easy… easy…_ It’s not over yet. Daichi lowers his stance; planting his feet wide, lowering his hips and shoulders, he closes his eyes, and goes beyond where the ball threaten to disappear. A wall no higher than his knees blocks their path. 

“Oh ho, a beautiful brick wall to block those artfully made balls, heh! Your volleyball is showing, Sawamura.” Ukai’s smile reminds him of Koushi’s. It’s wide and unaffected, pure with just a smidge of mocking mirth. But there’s no mockery in their voices when they talk about Daichi. “They’re stopped, but we do want them back. Can you still do that?”

Daichi stays where he is, the way he is. He looks as his creations, closing his eyes. He made them, unearthed them. Collected raw mineral and merged it together where before they were loose and grainy. They’re his. His to control. Releasing a deep breath, hands on his knees, and bowing his head, he calls them back, one by one. Creating smaller roadblocks along the way to make sure they don’t go down once more. Then when they’re closer, he makes them return all at once, to his feet.

“Just like little baby birds! Very well done, Sawamura. Now take a bre- Sawamura!”

Seeing the bumpy balls, and how much he loves them, Daichi cannot fight the headache or the fatigue of getting them here. He falls to the earth, unafraid of its harsh reality. Softer earth gathers to catch him, and surely it is alright to take a short rest?

“Goddamnit, okay uh, here. Drink some water.” 

 

*

 

“Daichi, please not so fast!”

Asahi’s stance is unstable, wobbly, but he doesn’t fall. Whenever he threatens to lose balance, Daichi shifts the plate accordingly. Today’s lesson is simple, but not the easiest in realizing it; make sure no one gets hurt. So far, he’s gotten a laughing Koushi from spot A to spot B, all on a thin layer of merged rock he formed. Now he was spinning Asahi on the same one, controlling it’s movement. With it, he had to make sure Asahi wouldn’t fall off. 

Controlling the elements was one thing, but given that he had to anticipate Asahi’s movements as well.. Daichi concentrates his will through the ground, knowing where rock ends and trembling human feet begin. He feels himself reaching a level of understanding. As the rock transforms under Asahi’s feet, he stabilizes the movement, then pushes it forward to the line in the sand Ukai drew. 

“Impressive. How’s the head?” 

The side effects of his quirk were yet a matter of confusion and vague ideas. Daichi had a feeling that the more he connects with the earth, the more he loses himself within it. Koushi mused one day that his want to be with the ground outweighs the need to stay conscious, hence he faints; not just to fall to the ground, but to be accepted by it. The earth would rise to meet him in an embrace, always making sure Daichi didn’t get hurt.

(Or was it him who made the ground go up in a last attempt of self-perseverance?)

Once he can get his friends from side to side one by one, Ukai orders him simultaneous switches. 

“Having to focus on one person in a rescue would be ideal. But we mostly deal with groups. Masses might be out of the question for you, but stabilizing the ground beneath a couple of people should be the goal,” Ukai says through a column of smoke. In his head, Daichi sees the grandson as Ukai, and the grandfather as the master of crows. The older Ukai left Daichi’s training completely in the hands of his grandson, saying he taught Daichi the basics. 

To be fearless and in control. 

“It’s all well said and done,” Daichi says, making the thin layers of rock stand still, turning his friends to face him. “But I cannot even _use_ my quirk. If anyone would see or find out…”

“Right. That’s why you’ll live in the shadows. Make small adjustments. Enter the Support department and get your license that way. Even if they won’t give you one, you’re always welcome in my hero agency, Sawamura. All three of you are,” Ukai grins, holding his cigarette aside. A warm feeling washes over Daichi, the acceptance into a world he thought would be closed forever.

He could be a hero, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like writing him an origin story. I really wanna explore a shippy fic but I cannot decide on the super popular kurodai/daikuro or on the more rarepair side of things (aka my side of things) daikita/kitadai :'D I feel in the universe itself daikuro could have been a one time or on-/off thing and then as they mature they rather be friends... And then there's Kita. But yeah not sure. I definitely wanna explore all three characters in rarepair terms :D
> 
> (And I know the ultimate idea would be ot3 soooo. I'll see where the road will take me).


End file.
